Centre Lac-Brome has a newly renovated community kitchen as a result of a collaboration between the Town of Brome Lake and its Wellness Volunteer group (“Wellness”). The idea to renovate the kitchen came about two years ago when the town’s director of leisure, tourism, culture, and community life Cynthia Brunelle, who is currently on leave and is being replaced by Martin Lussier, approached Wellness to be the project’s sponsor.

“We came to an agreement with the community centre and the town, of course they’re all basically one, that we would be the sponsor,” said Gib Rotherman, director of Wellness. “So, we did the paperwork and eventually the work was done. There was Martin and Cynthia organizing several people to come in and put in new tops for the kitchen, various things, cupboards, the whole thing.”

The renovations took about six months to complete.

“It worked out well and we had a terrific relationship not only with Martin, but with Cynthia. I can remember the first meeting we had with Cynthia, which was about two years ago; I had several directors with me because at the time I was president, and we told Cynthia we thought this was a great idea,” added Rotherman.

It was the group’s established relationship with Centre Lac-Brome that made its involvement in the project a no-brainer.

“We’ve had a wonderful relationship with the community centre. Our organization has been going now for over 35 years, we started in 1987. We have all our meetings here, we put on big lunches here - in some cases we have up to 225 people. We do that three times a year, and then we also put on what we call a ‘Christmas tea’ before Christmas,” noted Rotherman.

The renovated kitchen space is available to any groups, organizations, and citizens that are interested in using the space. Activities and programs will also be coordinated for the community.

“Joanne Nowak, who is involved in these types of programs, she is planning a community kitchen, so she will set up a few things with people who want to cook together,” mentioned Lussier, interim director for leisure, tourism, culture, and community life for the town. “We want to plan different activities for seniors and kids too, so maybe with the day camp they can use the community kitchen in the summer. It’s really for everyone.”

Lussier invites the community to go check out the new kitchen at any time. To reserve the kitchen space, call (450) 242-2020.

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